A Whirlwind of Activity for US Stocks in August—Is More Volatility Ahead?

It was the best of times and it was the worst of times on the New York Stock Exchange in the first 15 days of August. Wall Street volatility started on Aug. 1 when the Institute for Supply Management’s (ISM) Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index—a measurement of the prevailing economic direction of the sector—deepened into contraction territory in July. New orders fell, prices edged up, and employment tumbled. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed about 600 points after the data were published. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index lost around 500 points, while the S&P 500 Index erased nearly 100 points. The July jobs report exacerbated the selloff that unfolded in U.S. stocks....